sunday morning target dodgers - gonna fly now

well, i dug out a few more sheets from the 1990 target 100th anniversary giveaway set to scan and show off.  as for the subtitle of the post - you can probably guess that there is a rocky (or two) coming up.  with that, here are 14 more members of the dodger franchise fraternity from one of those sheets - the 15th guy being a double dipper who will get a post all to himself later today.

rube bressler

bressler began his career as a pitcher for the 1914 athletics, and converted to the outfield while with the reds later that decade.  by 1921, he had given up the mound for good.  bressler joined the robins in 1928 and patrolled the outfield as their left fielder for four seasons, during which time he hit .302 in 457 games.

jim brewer

that's a nice shot of brewer in dodger stadium, with the 'three sisters' palm trees in the background.  brewer was one of the best relievers in dodger history, with 125 saves over 12 seasons with the club, starting in 1964.  he pitched in three world series for the dodgers, and was an all-star in 1973.

rocky colavito

here's the first rocky on the sheet.  a former american league home run champ, colavito played for the dodgers in 1968 for just over 2 months.  during that time, he hit .204 with 3 homers and 11 rbi. after playing in just 40 games for them, the dodgers released colavito and he finished out his career with the yankees.

bill crouch

crouch was 4-0 in his rookie season with the 1939 dodgers. he pitched in 6 games, starting 3 and completing each of them.  had his career ended there, i would bet that he and his father, also bill crouch, would have been the only father/son big leaguers to throw complete games in each of their major league starts (dad had one start and one complete game in 1910 for the browns).  alas, the dodgers traded crouch to the phillies where he made 5 starts in 1941 and completed only one.

tom daly

daly joined the bridegrooms after three seasons in the national league just as the brooklyn franchise joined the senior circuit in 1890.  he remained with the club for 12 years, although he missed the 1897 season.  daly was the team's primary second baseman for much of that time, playing in a total of 1096 games and batting .294 for brooklyn.

cecil espy

espy was the white sox' first round draft pick in 1980. i remember this because the la times made a big deal about the 1980 draft due to crenshaw high's darryl strawberry being picked first overall.  in reviewing the draft results, i noticed that espy was taken with the pick immediately prior to the dodgers' selection of ross jones (kelly gruber was the player taken right after the dodgers selected jones).  espy never played for the chisox, however, as he was dealt to the dodgers prior to the 1983 season for rudy law.  espy debuted in the big leagues during the '83 campaign as a september call-up.  he saw action in 20 games as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner, and late inning defensive replacement, although he did start one game near the end of the season.  espy was back in the minors for the 1984 and 1985 seasons, and was then traded to the pirates in the bill madlock deal late in '85.  he didn't return to the majors, however, until he was with the rangers in 1987.  maybe that's when the picture used on his card was taken.

enzo hernandez

i've written about enzo before, and there's not much else to say since he only appeared in four games as a dodger in 1978. i'll just note that he was one of three dodgers to wear number 3 in 1978 - glenn burke and rudy law being the others.

dave j. hickman

dave here went by jim, as his middle name was james.  i am guessing that target used the dave to distinguish this guy from the other jim hickman who played for the dodgers.  you can tell that this one was a member of the 1916 robins thanks to the uniform he is wearing, and in fact, hickman was a robin from 1916 through 1919.  he hit .218 during that time while playing a fair amount of outfield, but he did not appear in the 1916 world series against the red sox.

joe oeschger

oeschger finished his 12 year major league career with a stint with the 1925 robins.  he pitched in 21 games, and had a record of 1-2 with a 6.08 era.  his name was already familiar to brooklyn fans, as oeschger was the pitcher for the braves who threw 26 innings against the robins on may 1, 1920 - a feat  also achieved by the robins' pitcher that day, leon cadore.  oeschger took his place next to cadore on a card commemorating the feat in the 1961 topps set.

charlie perkins

perkins was 0-3 with an 8.51 era for the 1934 dodgers. he pitched in 11 games, 2 of which were starts.  he had previously pitched in the majors for the 1930 athletics who won the world series, although perkins did not appear in the fall classic.

ken rowe

rowe was one of two rowes (don was the other - no relation) to appear on a 1963 topps rookie parade card.  he pitched in 14 games for the dodgers that year, putting up an era of 2.53 while splitting his two decisions.  rowe did not appear for the dodgers in the 1963 world series, and his contract was purchased by the orioles in 1964 bringing his dodger career to an end.

preston ward

ward was the dodgers' first baseman on opening day in 1948.  jackie robinson had moved to second base, opening the door for ward, a 20-year old rookie.  after a decent start (he was hitting right around .300 at the end of may), ward struggled in june and his average fell to .260 toward the end of the month.  he was sent down and gil hodges took over at first, and the rest is history.  after some more time in the minors, ward was picked up by the cubs, and he wound up playing in the majors for several years with the cubs, pirates, indians, and a's.

brad wellman

wellman spent the first five years of his big league career (1982-1986) with the giants, but signed with the dodgers as a free agent prior to the 1987 season. he managed to make it into three games as a dodger that year, appearing once as a second baseman, once as a shortstop, and once as a third baseman.  overall, he was 1 for 4 with an rbi as a dodger, and he signed with the royals after the season's end.

lave winham

winham pitched in one game for his hometown brooklyn superbas in 1902.  he lasted 3 innings, facing 15 batters and allowing 2 (unearned) runs.  the next year, he was pitching for the pirates in what would be his second and final big league season.  you don't see too many fedoras on baseball cards.

i will be back next week with another installment of these things, so don't fret.

sunday morning target dodgers

here are this week's players from the 1990 target dodger giveaway set.  fourteen players are featured in this post, with the fifteenth member of the sheet making an appearance a little later.

dan bankhead

bankhead was the first african-american pitcher to appear in the major leagues.  his negro league and minor league success didn't translate to big league success, however, and he ended his major league career with a 6.52 era over 52 games.

buzz boyle

boyle spent three seasons (1933-35) patrolling the outfield for the dodgers.  he hit .305 in 1934 and had a 25-game hitting streak while doing so.  that streak stood as the longest in dodger history until joe medwick hit in 27 straight in 1942.  willie davis is the dodger with the longest streak to date, with 31 in 1969.

larry cheney

cheney was traded to the robins from the cubs in 1915.  the next season, he won 18 games and helped brooklyn reach the world series in which he appeared in game 4.  cheney remained with the robins into the 1919 season when he was picked up on waivers by the braves.

cliff dapper

i figured that the only thing i knew about dapper when i saw this card is that he played for the pirates in addition to the dodgers.  i was wrong.  dapper's  big league career began and ended with the dodgers in 1942.  he hit .471 over the course of two weeks early in the '42 season, an average that stands as the highest for any player with 8 or more hits, according to baseball reference.  he served in world war ii from 1943-45, and never made it out of the minor leagues after returning from service.  in 1948, the dodgers famously traded him to double-a atlanta for announcer ernie harwell. as far as i can tell, the pirates uniform comes from dapper's time as a minor league player/manager in the pirates' system.

al downing

downing was traded to the dodgers by the brewers prior to the 1971 season (the guy the dodgers gave up is also on this sheet, and shows up later in the post).  he immediately went out and won 20 games and finished 3rd in the league cy young award voting.  downing wore number 44 for the dodgers, which is the same number worn by hank aaron, who hit a downing pitch in 1974 for home run number 715.

jim hickman

hickman came to the dodgers in the deal that sent tommy davis to the mets.  he only played for la in 1967, and was then traded to the cubs.  hickman's 67 appearances for the dodgers in '67 did not yield any home runs - the only season in which hickman failed to hit a long ball - but did include his lone career pitching performance.  in two innings of work against the giants on june 23, hickman allowed just one run - a home run by willie mays.

gil hodges

hodges is the star of the sheet, no doubt, even though there's a hall of famer on the sheet.  he came up as a catcher, but moved to first base for the dodgers in 1948 when jackie robinson moved to second (the guy that jackie replaced at first is also on this sheet).  hodges stayed at first for 14 seasons, helping the dodgers to 6 world series and hitting 360 home runs in that span.  he was selected by the expansion mets following the 1961 season, and hit the first home run in the team's history in their inaugural game.  he was traded to the senators during the 1963 season who wanted him as their manager.  a few years later, the mets would trade to get hodges back to be their skipper, and they were rewarded as he led them to their 1969 world championship.

rick honeycutt

honeycutt joined the dodgers in august of 1983 following a trade with the rangers that sent dave stewart to texas.  his 2.42 era for the rangers wound up leading the league that year, although his total era for the season was 3.03 - higher than mike boddicker's 2.77.  this was a similar situation to eddie murray's lost batting title in 1990 when willie mcgee was traded to the a's and wound up with a lower batting average overall than did murray, but maintained a higher national league average.  these days, the titles are won based on overall averages, not intraleague stats, which would have been good for murray but bad for honeycutt.  anyway, honeycutt pitched for the dodgers for almost exactly four years before being traded to oakland in august of 1987.  the dodgers received tim belcher in exchange, and wound up beating honeycutt and the a's thanks in part to belcher in the 1988 world series.  honeycutt returned to the dodgers as a coach following his retirement, and is currently don mattingly's pitching coach.

andy kosco

kosco spent two seasons with the dodgers - 1969 and 1970.  his 19 home runs and 74 rbi in 1969 led the team, but he was traded to the brewers following the 1970 season for al downing, straight up.

bob o'brien

o'brien gave up a home run to the first batter he faced in the big leagues (cito gaston), but also struck out the side in that same inning of work.  he pitched for the dodgers only in 1971, appearing in 14 games and earning a record of 2-2.  he made four career starts, the first of which ended in a 6-hit shutout against the cardinals.  o'brien made his lone topps appearance on the same 1972 rookie card as charlie hough and mike strahler, although his big league career was over at that point.

luther roy

roy pitched in two games for the brooklyn robins in 1929, giving up 2 runs in 3.2 innings.  those were the final two appearances of his career, a career that saw him post the highest era (7.17) for any player after 1900 who pitched more than 150 innings (since surpassed only by aaron myette).

ed stevens

stevens debuted for the dodgers in 1945, and was their primary first baseman in 1946.  he hit 10 home runs that year, good for second on the team behind pete reiser's 11.  in 1947, stevens was replaced at first base by jackie robinson, and spent most of the season at montreal.  after the season ended, his contract was purchased by the pirates, and he went on to play three more seasons in pittsburgh.

gary weiss

weiss is probably best known for being the last dodger to wear number 1 before it was retired in pee wee reese's honor.  he was a september call up for the dodgers in both 1980 and 1981.  he got into 8 games in 1980, all as a pinch runner, and then played in 14 games in 1981, including four consecutive starts at shortstop.  both of his career hits came in the same game - 9/20/81 against mario soto of the reds - and his lone career rbi was an eventual game winner - a sacrifice fly that scored steve garvey on 9/17/81.

larry white

white was acquired by the dodgers in the deal that sent rick sutcliffe to the indians.  he made his big league debut in 1983 for the dodgers, and pitched well in the four games in which he appeared, giving up just one run in 7 innings of work (the run came courtesy of an rbi single by nolan ryan).  in 1984, white had a couple cups of coffee with the dodgers, finishing the season with the club and striking out the last batter he would face in the big leagues - terry puhl on 9/25/84.

time waits for no man, and jim hickman didn't wait for topps

jim hickman turned 74 today.  happy birthday, jim.  he spent one singular season with the dodgers as a result of being part of the november 1966 trade that sent tommy davis to the mets.  hickman was rewarded with a sad sort of card in 1967, featuring a hatless photo of him as a met with the indentation of his cap still visible on his forehead. 

the card says he's a dodger, and i guess that's what counts for us team collectors.  and, as a good team collector turned into ttm enthusiast, i sent one of these cards off to mr. hickman for his autograph.  i am happy to report that he complied with my request.

hickman's stay in los angeles went so poorly (it was easily the worst season of his career) that topps didn't include him in their 1968 set.  he had hit .163 in 65 games with no homers and only 10 rbi.  he even served up career home run number 553 to willie mays in a mop-up pitching performance.  the opportunity for a proper card of hickman, in a dodger uniform and listed as a dodger, was lost forever when the dodgers traded hickman in april of 1968 to the cubs.  in chicago, he raised his batting average to .223 and hit 5 home runs with 23 rbi in 75 games during the 1968 season.  those numbers were worthy of a topps card in 1969, but topps still had not caught up to hickman, using a photo of him from his days as a dodger.

obviously, hickman signed this one for me too.  if only there were a way to combine this with the 1967 card, it would be halfway decent.  topps finally caught up to hickman in 1970, featuring him as a cub with a photo of him in a cub uniform.  that was the season he hit .315 with 32 homers and 115 rbi and made the all-star team.  it was his base hit that resulted in pete rose demolishing ray fosse to score the winning run.

i didn't have an extra copy of his 1970 card, but i did have a 1971 card lying around and he signed it as well.

hickman stayed with the cubs until the spring of 1974 when they traded him to saint louis.  topps pulled a 1968 and didn't bother to feature him in their '74 set as a cub, cardinal or otherwise.

here's to you jim hickman!  happy birthday and thanks for signing my cards!